http://www.movies.spoilertv.com/2010/01 ... -call.html

I gotta say, I sort of saw this coming. If they gave Arwen such a huge role, they must want a strong female role and a love story, even if they have to invent it! Here's her description:

[ITARIL] FEMALE, A WOODLAND ELF, this character is one the Silvan Elves. The Silvan Elves are seen as more earthy and practical. Shorter than other elves, she is still quick and lithe and physically adept, being able to fight with both sword and bow. Showing promise as a fighter at a young age, ITARIL was chosen to train to become part of the Woodland King’s Guard. This is the only life she has ever expected to live, until she meets and secretly falls in love with a young ELF LORD. This role will require a wig and contact lenses to be worn. Some prosthetic make-up may also be required. LEAD. AGE: 17-27. ACCENT – STANDARD R.P.

Primula Brandybuck and Drogo Baggins are also on the list. So is Bilbo! They must not have cast him, then!

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I have to say I am sceptic about this elven lady wielding sword and bow... Looks like a LOT of RPG characters I crossed during my long experience!

Anyway, I'm curious about this...

Who do you envisage for this part guys? ^^

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That was exactly what I thought. Not to mention I've come across the name itself a lot during LotR RPGs... lol.

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Great minds think alike. Make the unnamed "elf lord" Legolas and you have every female RPGer's fantasy.

It does make one doubt how much, if any, of the list is real. (In fact TORN says they've double-checked their sources and have decided it's not real. ) But I've often wondered if they were going to force a romance into a book with literally no female characters. I'm very much against it, because I didn't like the most of the scenes with Arwen in TTT. I'm thinking particularly of Aragorn's dream, phasing into a flashback which didn't make sense at the time and which I still think is a sort of clumsy way to tell their story.

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At least there was romance in LotR, that they just expanded on. The Hobbit though has NOTHING whatsoever to do with Elf-ladies and has -100% romance in it. Why force it in there? It just doesn't fit with the story and is totally irrelevant. Isn't the story complex enough as it is? I'm already curious as to how they're gonna condense everything in the book to fit into one movie, but now there's romance involved too... lovely.

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Perhaps this is just a rumor, but I heard the Hobbit was going to be in two parts? And a romance? Meh...it doesn't belong. For goodness sake, the book was originally written for children. What would Tolkien do? Shove a romance into the stories very being? ...or let the story tell itself how it is meant to be.

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^ They're definitely going to make two films. The general impression is that most of The Hobbit will be the first film, and the second film will be the end of The Hobbit and bridge into FotR.

I agree with both of you, though. A romance like this is just not Tolkien. It's all marketing, though. Insert a romance, or at least a female lead, and you can assume more women will go to see it, and you'll make a couple more millions. It is a business, after all.

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I don't like it, but one can understand why they'd do it. Have no strong females and all the feminists out there will scream "sexist," and even though the book was written for children I think they'll gear the film more to older people - older teens to thirties - and a romance is probably part of the way they'll do that.
I mean the book is fairly dark, I probably wouldn't want my eight year old (if I had one) see a movie of the book, even if this hypothetical child did read the book. I don't find Tolkien's books as sledgehammer-ly (can I use that word? Is it a word? Do you know what I mean?) emotive as most movies are today.
The spiders, for instance, don't frighten me much in the book because it's written in a child friendly way. But I think it would be kind of sadistic and creepy to try to visually depict a bunch of unconcious dwarves hanging upside down and surrounded by spiders in a child friendly way.
Am I making sense? To gear it towards older people is the only way it's going to work in a sucessful way for the film makers and the only way it will fit in with the LotR films which they seem to be trying to do too.

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I think TORN proved this to be untrue pretty much as soon as this came out cause the casting call was completely fictional.

She seems oh so very Mary Sue ( I was kind of alarmed at her name Itaril is so close to the name of my own LotR character Italide xD) though I heard the elf lord was meant to be Glorfindel. If a character like this did show up in the film I'd have no problem with her if she was primarily non-speaking and not important to the plot, kinda like the "Hero" orcs and Uruks in RotK and FotR- completely irrelevant but kinda fun.

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Remember this? Maybe it wasn't a fake after all! I've just heard that the girl from "The Lovely Bones" was cast in role, and I think the source was pretty reliable, too.

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Yes, Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones, Atonement) has been cast as Itaril. What her purpose will be one can only guess.

I must agree... I hope they stick as close to the book as possible... though maybe take it up a few notches on the maturity level.

Not like add anything "Mature" as content but make it a little more adult friendly than the book which (if you read) was obviously geared towards children.

I want to feel like I am watching LOTR not a childs version of it... if you know what I mean... *shrugs*

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I'm honestly totally against any romantic subplots with Itaril. Seriously, it will be the subject of all sorts of fluffy fanfics and RPGs alike for years to come. Tolkien will be turning in his grave...

lol Yeah... can't argue with any of those points...

I'll have to remember to watch and see if any RPGs pop up here about it.

If we are lucky it will end up being a fake list... O_O

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Is it really official now? There have been tons of rumors that point toward Saiorse being involved, but I haven't heard any official casting announcement Personally, I don't have much of a problem with the role as long as her romance is NOT with Legolas. That's just way too fangirl-fantasy-ish for me! But since Thranduil's people didn't get much description or screen-time (well...book-time...) in The Hobbit, I understand their wanting to drum up some actual specific elven characters. And with the absolute dearth of female characters in The Hobbit, I understand their wanting to make one of those characters female.

I guess I'm just not that attached to The Hobbit overall, so I'm not a huge purist about it

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I guess that does make sense... I mean I like elves and it does make sense that they would want a female character... but I still think I would appreciate it more if they stuck as close to the book as possible...

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